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GTX 980 - Underwhelmed, is it just me?

Associate
Joined
16 Mar 2011
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824
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Leeds
Hi all,

I have replaced my SLI setup of two GTX 660ti's for one GTX 980. I have always thought my SLI setup was pretty good and never have to turn many settings down too much for decent 60 FPS gaming. But I can't help but be completely underwhelmed by the performance of the 980 so far.

I have noticed non to slim FPS increase on the games I play most frequent. Those are Project Cars, Far Cry 4 and Battlefield 4.

It is faster here and there but no where near what I expected, Project Cars was the least improved still only getting 30-60 fps on highest settings at 1080p and I was getting that on my old cards. Also lots of FPS drops too at various points round the track which I think is unacceptable for a £400 gpu.

The new card also suffers from horrid coil whine so without a shadow of a doubt its going back, but I am struggling to decide if I should get a replacement when there is practically no difference from my old SLI setup.

Any thoughts?
 
Associate
OP
Joined
16 Mar 2011
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824
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Leeds
I know, i read up about this before taking the plunge and decided the increase should be worth it but at the moment it's defo not worth a £400 upgrade.

I don't really wanna go down the route of a format, I did perform a clean install with the drivers but I must admit I didn't go to the Nvidia web site and download them fresh I just used the ones in the Nvidia folder on my hard drive. I assumed the cards all run off the same driver. If not this could be a reason..
 
Man of Honour
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21 May 2012
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Dalek flagship
I know, i read up about this before taking the plunge and decided the increase should be worth it but at the moment it's defo not worth a £400 upgrade.

I don't really wanna go down the route of a format, I did perform a clean install with the drivers but I must admit I didn't go to the Nvidia web site and download them fresh I just used the ones in the Nvidia folder on my hard drive. I assumed the cards all run off the same driver. If not this could be a reason..

Download 247.09 drivers.:)
 
Associate
OP
Joined
16 Mar 2011
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824
Location
Leeds
Is that 2600k oced?

I wouldn't think 2600k at stock would bottleneck the card, but maybe...

Its overclocked slightly with the RAM XMP profile in the BIOS. Think its running at 3.6. It does run at 4.8 fine but never noticed a difference in games so leave it on the XMP profile as its much more stable.
 
Caporegime
Joined
30 Jul 2013
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28,822
I just got the standard GTX 980 Jetstream 4GB card installed in my 2nd rig, so can compare some like for like benchmarks if you want? Yours obviously should be a bit quicker

It's installed in a PC with a 4.5Ghz Haswell i7, 8GB DDR3 and Windows 8.1

I don't have Project Cars, but things like Heaven 4 or Thief, Arkham Origins, Alien Isolation....games like that with a built in benchmark.
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
16 Mar 2011
Posts
824
Location
Leeds
Thanks for that, I am still running Win 7 64bit, not been tempted by 8.1 yet. Does it make any difference for games?

If I keep the card long enough I will do some benchmarks with you but if the RMA goes through quickly I'll be back on the SLI setup pretty soon and to be honest I am not sure I will replace them again any time soon.
 
Man of Honour
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Dalek flagship
Thanks for that, I am still running Win 7 64bit, not been tempted by 8.1 yet. Does it make any difference for games?

If I keep the card long enough I will do some benchmarks with you but if the RMA goes through quickly I'll be back on the SLI setup pretty soon and to be honest I am not sure I will replace them again any time soon.

I would definitely try the card with the latest drivers before you send it back.
 
Associate
OP
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I am trying to hold on for Windows 10, I am so gutted about all this I really hope there is something that can be fixed.

Was so giddy installing it and then my heart sank when I saw the FPS.
 
Caporegime
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28,822
I missed the bit about the drivers.

Always ALWAYS try the latest drivers first. How old are the ones you have!?

Windows 8.1 has Core parking off by default, Windows 7 doesn't so that can affect scores as well.
 
Soldato
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19 Feb 2007
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14,258
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ArcCorp
I went from a 780 Ti heavily overclocked as I got a golden chip at 1300 and 7600 on the memory to a 980 overclocked to 1550/8000 and to be honest to my eyes there was no difference, Every game still felt the same even with the extra gig of memory and the temps weren't miles better either plus I had horrendous coil whine, The 900 series is a little too hyped IMHO.
 
Associate
OP
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Well the driver I used was the latest driver for the 660ti but aren't they all just the same driver that supports multiple gpu's?

If you search for the 980 driver its the same as when you search for the 660ti driver. Thats why I didn't re download, I thought it would be the same as I already had.
 
Soldato
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23 Apr 2010
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I went from a 780 Ti heavily overclocked as I got a golden chip at 1300 and 7600 on the memory to a 980 overclocked to 1550/8000 and to be honest to my eyes there was no difference, Every game still felt the same even with the extra gig of memory and the temps weren't miles better either plus I had horrendous coil whine, The 900 series is a little too hyped IMHO.

The 9 series was the logical upgrade for 6xx users. If you had a 7 series card like the 780 and 780ti and Titan Black the 9 series offered absolutely nothing.

9 series are a mid range launch, similar to the 6 series. IE cut down memory bandwidth mid range core. The logical upgrade to the 7 series and Titan series will hopefully be the full fat Maxwell.

Nvidia learned a lot with Fermi. IE - when you throw the kitchen sink at it it makes little difference in gaming. The 7970 is a very similar design absolutely crammed with features that will do little in gaming.

So Nvidia wised up and started producing the cheaper stuff first. Of course you get an absolutely massive dose of hyperbole when Nvidia release anything and the 970 and 980 are riding high on that wave.

I bought Titan Blacks for many reasons really, but, high memory bandwidth and memory were two of them. I can now sit here with my hands behind my head and watch a good few graphics card launches go by without even pausing for thought.

They were a massive £699 each, but, if I took into account the cost of say a 980 and then the upgrade to Titan 2 or whatever Nvidia decide to badge it as I will still be quids in. The 980 will be worth bugger all once Nvidia release the full fat Maxwell, and I would bet that it still won't be any cause for me to upgrade.

It's always been the same in technology really. Spend the absolute maximum you can afford and then you have bought the right to turn your head for a good while. Buy mid range or low end and you end up eventually spending the same as the top end part.
 
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